The recently-released results of the 2010 Census made official what had already been a reality for years: Georgetown students are dramatically underrepresented on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission that oversees Georgetown University and its surrounding neighborhoods. Students currently have only one representative on the Commission out of seven total, even though we constitute 45 percent of the population under the authority of the ANC. At a hearing on Monday at Georgetown Visitation School, the Commission will defend its latest attempt to ensure that students remain underrepresented.
Last week, the ANC’s redistricting task force, which was created to draw eight single-member districts within the ANC’s turf in order to reflect population growth, adopted a proposal that would cram students living in University-owned buildings into two massive districts. It is crucial that Georgetown students turn out in force to oppose the continued trampling of their right to equal representation in D.C. government.
Each student district would have 2,581 people, while the smallest of the mainly non-student districts would have a population of only 1,660. Such a vast discrepancy between districts is unprecedented and flies in the face of D.C. election law. A more equitable drawing of the map would allow students to compete in four of the eight districts, not just two. In a post on the blog Greater Greater Washington, Jake Sticka (COL ’13), the sole student representative on the Commission, warned that the adopted proposal potentially violates students’ rights as minority citizens: According to the D.C. Code, “No redistricting plan or proposed amendment to a redistricting plan shall be considered if the plan or amendment has the purpose and effect of diluting the voting strength of minority citizens.”
Maturely engaging in local politics can demonstrate that Georgetown students refuse to be bullied by the ANC. The redistricting process also offers students a constructive opportunity to change our relationship with the University’s neighbors, which has too often descended into useless mudslinging. As the continuing battle over Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan demonstrates, student interests are deeply affected by the actions of the ANC. We cannot afford to leave our local government entirely to the whims of those who wish to diminish student voices and gerrymander us out of fair representation.
The hearing will be on Monday at 6:30 PM. The entrance to Georgetown Visitation is at 35th Street and Volta Place, one block north of P Street.
John Flanagan recused himself from the consideration of this editorial.
